Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2012
August 6 will mark the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and August 9 that of Nagasaki; the only occasions on which atomic weapons have been used in war. The gravity of the event is reflected in the continued debate, so long after, about the moral and military justifications of their use.
Considered in isolation, what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was dreadful. Including those who died in the years after the initial blasts from burns and radiation sickness, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum cites a death toll of 140,000 (plus or minus 10,000)—and that number was replicated at Nagasaki. Over a quarter of a million died, not to mention the countless thousands of survivors left maimed and sickened.
However, it didn’t happen in isolation; Japan was at war with the US, and by August 1945 that war was coming to a decisive end. US heavy bombers were pummeling military targets across Japan, and in June, US forces captured Okinawa after weeks of intense fighting, bringing them within striking distance of Honshu.
How might that have turned out? Over 250,000 Japanese died on Okinawa alone, nearly half of whom were civilians, many of them coerced into suicide by their own military. In a single night of bombing, nearly 200,000 people died in Tokyo and, as they had at Okinawa, many more such bombardments would have preceded an American landing. Meanwhile, according to Karel van Wolferen in The Enigma of Japanese Power, the Japanese generals had prepared for a land invasion of the mainland by forming a civilian militia of 28 million men, women and teenagers, whose job it was to stand on the beaches and repel the Americans with bamboo spears. The deranged supremacists in Japan’s high command were clearly prepared to sacrifice any number of civilians, for no reason other than to forestall the inevitable American victory. The carnage that would have ensued simply defies imagination.
That’s the context in which American commanders decided to use the atomic bomb. Faced with the choice they had, they adopted the less terrible course of action.
Dreadful things happen in times of war, and there are dreadful choices to be made. But these choices can be avoided, and questions of moral legitimacy made irrelevant, by stopping war—or, more precisely, by stopping the people who start wars. The question is, how?
First, the kind of people who start wars are generally outspoken nationalist ideologues, often demagogues, who deliberately foster a culture of fervent patriotism, then play on fear and xenophobia to generate the support they want. Hermann Goering put it like this: “Naturally, the common people don’t want war. But… the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. It is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism.”
The invasion of Iraq provides an instructive example. Following the first Gulf War, a second crack at Iraq had been the aim of a cabal of imperialist ideologues calling themselves the Project for the New American Century, including among their number Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other prominent hawks. The events of 9/11 presented them with the opportunity they needed to stoke fear of the Islamic world, while their cheerleaders in the conservative media lambasted dissenters with a ruthlessness of which Goering would have been proud.
Here and now in Japan, we have politicians obliging schools to grade students on their patriotism, talking up the preposterous “threat” of a Chinese invasion, suggesting revisions to the pacifist constitution, and downplaying the Japanese military’s role on Okinawa. But in that case the Okinawan people weren’t having it, and their massive protests forced Tokyo to compromise on a proposed whitewashing of history textbooks.
It’s from Okinawa that we can take a lead in standing up and making our voices heard. When the new Goerings come calling we can protest against their militarism and hatemongering, we can denounce the jingoism and racism of the press, we can demand accountability from our politicians and media and fellow citizens. Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect to stop war completely, as some warmongers will still manage to claw their way to power. But we can make a difference. Hitler may have been vastly fortunate to survive numerous attempts on his life, but we will never know how many of his like have been held back, and how many wars averted, because the common people stood up and took action.
The best way to serve the memories of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is to stay vigilant, take responsibility, and howl down those who would ever drag us again down the bloody path to war.
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